Spring
by peroxidepest17
Summary: Spring is a time of renewal.


**Title:** Spring   
**Universe:** XXXHolic  
**Theme/Topic:** N/A  
**Rating:** PG-13  
**Character/Pairing/s:** DoumekixWatanuki  
**Warnings/Spoilers:** None I can imagine.  
**Word Count: **3,149  
**Summary:** Spring is a time of renewal.  
**Dedication:** sherrymarie's REAL birthday present! Because this is what she actually wanted. LOL**  
A/N:** Haha um, this is kind of frenetic and all over the place because I was writing it while watching more stupid boyband clips in youtube. It probably affected my flow like LOTS. But haha, KAT-TUN's spazzy flailing was very inspirational. Really.  
**Disclaimer:** Not mine, though I wish constantly.  
**Distribution:** Just lemme know.

* * *

Life, Watanuki thinks, is confusing enough as it is.

And Doumeki, Watauki supposes, will forever be one of those inconsiderate idiots who makes life just that much _more _confusing. It can't be helped.

And really, those are the things in this world that he's very much resigned to already. He can deal with those things.

This however, isn't something he signed on for. This complicates things _doubly._

Because there are two Doumekis right now—perfect mirror images—and they are doing their very best to kill each other. Kill each other dead.

It's an unnecessary complication, and Watanuki wonders if he's being tested somehow.

The Doumekis ignore him—funny, because he thought that they were fighting about _him_— and he stands on the side and looks back and forth between their dual, impassive faces as they pant in-between exchanging blows, somehow managing to seem very, very calm despite the fact that they are very clearly trying to kill one another.

This, Watanuki thinks, is not something he needs.

On any other day he might have been at a loss, might have been confused and sputtering and flailing and generally trying to get the violent theatrics to stop, but today he had been pummeled by a deceptively strong little old lady at the market trying to get the head-on fresh ebi that were on sale and after she'd smacked him in the face with her purse—did she carry _bricks_ in there or something?— he'd stumbled backwards and the crowd of vicious housewives had closed in around him like a bunch of bloodthirsty sharks and elbowed past him for _their _shrimp (forget public safety), and by the time he'd gotten to the front of the display again the store was all sold out for the day. He'd ended up buying the frozen shrimp instead (no heads), and Yuuko (of course) promptly complained about it while he was cooking. Cooking _for her_.

"Watanuki," she'd whined, "there's a time to use everything, you know…when it's fresh, when it's ready! Once a thing goes beyond that moment all it can do is leave a bad taste in your mouth. Or worse…rot. You're better off just throwing it out and starting with something new then."

He'd snarled and told her, "then get fresh shrimp yourself!" and felt like very nearly ripping his hair out because she had to be the most demanding person on this side of the _planet _next to stupid-Doumeki. Except he didn't fancy going bald at the tender age of seventeen so he'd ignored her instead—put a lid on his anger, so to speak—and finished the day doing laundry. While he was doing that he sighed and noticed a brand new apron hanging in the closet for him, and when he complained to Yuuko-san about wasting money when the old apron was perfectly good still, she'd just smiled drunkenly at him and told him, "out with the old, in with the new!" She of course, was no help with the laundry (or the rest of the spring cleaning really) and he'd only barely managed to get it all done before she was cheerfully waving two small brown-paper packages at him and telling him that they were something he needed to drop off at the mailbox THREE TRAIN STOPS away even though there was a perfectly usable mailbox just around the corner. When he'd demanded _why _she needed him to go to this particular mailbox she'd just smiled and looked thoughtful and said, "Spring is a wonderful time for new beginnings."

His response: "What. The. Heck."

And then she'd waved him off without any further explanation, because "it would be rude to keep Doumeki waiting, and maaa, isn't it getting late? You'll miss the train."

True to her word, Doumeki had been waiting for him outside, and after their requisite bout of arguing (Watanuki screaming at an impassive Shizuka) they'd headed off together, into the night.

Yuuko's last words to him before this whole fiasco began had been, "And be sure not to open your packages no matter what!"

Then she'd smirked at him like she knew something he didn't—wasn't that always the case?—and the two of them had been off.

And now, here they are.

As you may have been able to guess, package one managed to rip open—just the tiniest of tears in the corner, and only because on his way out of the train, the doors had mysteriously shut on the edge of the brown paper and ripped it just a little bit, and Watanuki hadn't thought anything of it since it wasn't really _open _per se, but as they'd walked towards the mailbox location he'd gotten the distinct feeling that something wasn't right.

Package one, it seems, had contained something that looks just like Doumeki. And for some reason, that something wants to throttle Doumeki despite the fact that it shares Doumeki's stupid face (which, Watanuki thinks, might have been some sort of point they could bond on, all things considered).

Watanuki doesn't even want to know what's inside of package two.

All in all, it just seems to make an already trying day even worse, and before the two Doumekis can resume going for each other's throats on the next charge, he gives up trying to figure out how to stop it all and screams instead. "HOLD ON!!!!"

It's a miracle, but they both do exactly that, and turn to look at him in freakish, freakish synchronization.

"What are you?" Watanuki asks one of the Doumekis after a moment.

It sighs at him. "Doumeki, moron."

Oh.

Watanuki scowls. "Okay fine." He turns to the other one then, instead. "What are you? If you say Doumeki too, I'm leaving right now, I swear it."

The thing blinks. And then turns back to Doumeki and points at him accusatorily. "I'm his. He kept me trapped for all this time," it accuses, and looks like it's just about ready for round two again.

Watanuki holds up a hand. "Wait, wait, wait. _He_ trapped you? I think you've got the wrong idea. Yuuko-san gave us the package, so _she_ trapped you. Really, if you have an issue, you should take it up with her."

The thing blinks. "No," it insists, though it sounds more befuddled than angry now, "_he _trapped me." It points to Doumeki again.

Watanuki puts a hand on his hip. "He's too stupid to just go and trap creatures all on his own. Yuuko-san trapped you. I really think you ought to speak to her. Look, we can all go together to drop off the last package right now and still catch the final train back to her place. Once we're back we'll have tea and sake and senbei and sort out our differences like civilized people-plus-mystical-beings there, okay? I'm sick of watching you two try and throttle each other."

"Always the concerned one," Doumeki drawls.

"Shut up," Watanuki snaps, and the not-opened package he's holding is getting heavier by the minute. He tries not to look at the blood trickling down the corner of Doumeki's mouth because it's _annoying_ goddammit.

The thing with Doumeki's face sneers, and that's just proof again that it isn't Doumeki. "I understand perfectly well," it says. "He kept me trapped for a long, long time, and I was getting stronger and stronger and stronger while he did, so the Dimension Witch put a spell on me. Kept me inside so I wouldn't try and hurt him, and now that it's spring she wants to use the renewal of this world to cast me out of it."

Watanuki nods, even though it really doesn't make that much sense to him. "See? So it _was_ Yuuko-san."

"He started it!" the creature rejoins, and glares at Doumeki.

Watanuki sighs and looks at Doumeki, because he's able to sympathize with the creature on that level, at least. "Why do you _always _start it?!"

Doumeki blinks.

Watanuki has a headache. "Look, what _are_ you, first of all? Because if you were nothing but a horrible monster you probably would have, you know, not stopped to talk and continued to try and destroy us."

"Not you," it chimes in, and maybe even blushes a little. "Just him."

Watanuki blinks. "Um. Okay. Well, then maybe you would have kept trying to kill just Doumeki. Which is fine by me and everything, but I really want to be able to catch the last train back and… OOF."

He can't finish the sentence because the package in his hand suddenly gets to be about _five hundred pounds_ and he's dropping it with a thud on the pavement. "What the heck?!"

The creature laughs a little at that. "He wants out now too. You shouldn't keep stuff bottled up like that. Unhealthy."

Watanuki stares warily at the package. "What _are_ these things?!"

Doumeki shrugs—not helpful. "Maybe it's your doppelganger. It probably wants to throttle you too. Which…makes sense."

Watanuki glares and wishes the bastard would stop pointing out the obvious. For someone who insists on complicating Watanuki's life so much, he sure is a simple-minded idiot.

"Fine, doppelganger. But what _is _it, really?" Watanuki presses sensibly, because he _really_ wants to make the last train back. He turns to the creature for an answer, because all things considered, it'll probably be more helpful than Doumeki. "What are you?"

Doumeki-imposter smiles at him. "Unfulfilled potential," it breathes, and looks at him intensely. "Unfulfilled desires, specifically."

He feels himself taking a step backwards, on instinct. "Unfulfilled potential." He turns to Doumeki. "What did you _do_? Or um, not do?"

Doumeki looks thoughtful, staring at his doppelganger and trying to figure out what it is he's been suppressing for the past few months. "Ah," he says, when he realizes, and bumps his fist against his palm like it's the answer to a stupid quiz question and not the answer to solving the problem that is trying to kill him right now. "Christmas."

"In Japanese, please," Watanuki snipes, and doesn't get it. All that happened on Christmas was another crazy mission involving some temperamental reindeer and Watanuki getting lost in the woods in the middle of a snowstorm and Doumeki finding him half-conscious and frozen and dragging him back to some god awful cave and…

He blinks. "You have _got _to be joking me."

The Doumeki-double just looks at him and nods.

Watanuki slaps a hand to his forehead, and his face maybe turns bright red. "I was half-dead! We were trying to get warm!!! I… _I knew you wanted my clothes off for something nefarious_."

Doumeki blinks. "To keep you alive?"

Watanuki sputters and points. "Unfulfilled desire! That's the only thing I can think of from this Christmas and_ I bet you were thinking dirty old man thoughts weren't you_?"

Doumeki shrugs, startlingly unapologetic despite the very disturbing revelations going on here. "For like, a minute. I'm _seventeen_. We were naked."

Watanuki rubs his temples and turns back to the double. "So _you _were the result?"

It nods. "My birthday."

Immaculate conception, wonderful. The child of Doumeki and Watanuki when they _didn't _have sex (not that they would have, but you know. _Potential)._

At his feet, Yuuko's second package starts rattling really hard.

Watanuki's head is pounding at this point, and he huffs once before recounting some of the creature's other words. "And you _grew_?"

It nods again.

Another withering look at Doumeki.

Doumeki shrugs—again. "I'm _seventeen_."

Watanuki is bright pink. "That's no excuse! Now your uncontrolled desires are trying to kill you!"

Doumeki smirks a little. "Actually my _controlled _desires are trying to kill me. If I hadn't bottled them up we wouldn't be in this mess."

Something about Yuuko's rant regarding frozen shrimp comes to mind at that, but Watanuki ignores it because he doesn't want to deal with her right now.

And he really, really doesn't fancy walking back all that way in the dark, and the last train is scheduled to come by in less than an hour.

So he ignores both the memory of Yuuko's words and Doumeki's smart-allecky little remarks and turns back to the Doumeki-double. "What happens if you beat him?"

It licks its lips and looks at Watanuki in a sort of anticipatory manner.

Watanuki blushes again. "Uh, never mind, don't answer that," he says, quickly. The package at his feet shakes again, and he gives it a good solid kick just because. It keeps rattling.

"Stupid potential," he mutters, and is trying to think about this rationally.

The Doumekis watch him.

After a minute, he puts his hands on his hips and works on not looking embarrassed. "So," he begins, purely hypothetically, "what happens to you if you become uh… _fulfilled _potential?" Because, he figures, frozen shrimp is still _edible_, even if it will never actually be as good as fresh shrimp again.

The creature smiles. "Then I can't be thrown away anymore."

Watanuki kind of feels bad for it when he hears that, all things considered. He clears his throat. "Uhm, what if uh, what if I gave you a kiss? I mean, would that be enough to uh… make you not want to kill Doumeki?"

The Doumeki-doppleganger considers it. "It might."

Doumeki frowns. "It might not."

"It's worth a shot!" Watanuki shouts, and doesn't think Doumeki has the right to act all indignant when he was the one who'd gone and made things so complicated in the first place (never mind the fact that it may be Watanuki's fault for letting the stupid wrapping paper rip in the train doors).

The second package shakes some more.

He ignores it and takes a deep breath, steps towards the creature.

It—with Doumeki's face— regards him with a raw kind of hunger. It's unsettling, and he finds himself hesitating just a bit, even as he tells himself rationally, that this is just so they can make the last train.

His feet drag, but he keeps pushing forward.

And just when he's about there, almost nose to nose with Doumeki's evil twin…

…it screams and dissolves.

Watanuki whirls around. "That was low!!!" he shouts instinctively, because it _was,_ even if the thing had been trying to kill Doumeki earlier.

Doumeki lowers his invisible bow. "We were going to throw it away anyway, right?" he says simply, and stretches the shoulders in his back. "Besides, with all the time you were taking…we'll miss the last train."

Watanuki bristles. "I hate you."

The package on the ground rattles some more.

They both eye it.

Watanuki sighs. "I don't even want to think about it. C'mon, let's go dump that one. I'm _tired_."

"I'm sure all that wanting-to-kiss-evil was exhausting," Doumeki says, and the way he says it, anyone who didn't know him wouldn't know if he's being serious or sarcastic.

Watanuki wishes he didn't know Doumeki so well. "Shut up and help me carry it. It got heavy."

It takes them another twenty minutes to walk two blocks because the deceptively small package is so weighed down, and despite the fact that Doumeki is clearly curious about its contents, they manage to toss it into the mystical spring mail receptacle of doom without too much more trouble.

Watanuki stares at the mailbox for a moment after that, wondering if that one really was his, and what, exactly, it might have contained that he'd held on to in secret for far too long.

Wasted potential.

If he's being honest with himself he already knows, and he kind of feels a little bit raw, standing there at the height of spring—the time of renewal in this world—and thinking about what it was he hadn't acted on when the time had been right.

Even more, he wonders if this means that Doumeki has thrown away all of his unfulfilled desire.

He doesn't have time to think too much about it though, because then he remembers that it's late. "Ack, the last train!" he wails, and promptly turns around and starts running for the station. He doesn't need to look over his shoulder to know Doumeki is loping casually behind him all the way.

They manage to make it _just in time_, and as the doors slide shut once Doumeki angles himself into the car—they're the only two riders—a cheerful voice over the PA system welcomes all passengers aboard and announces the next stop. Then it talks about a few new movies that are coming out next week, and cheerfully tells everyone, "Spring is here!"

Doumeki is sitting on the seat next to him and their knees are touching slightly—even if they're the only two riders in the whole damn car—and Watanuki looks up when he hears the announcement on the PA.

The ride is quiet.

And it all comes to Watanuki in a jumble of quiet not long after that, the answers to everything he'd been wondering just now. Doumeki sitting next to him breathing easily despite the run, their knees touching in the otherwise empty car, the smell of shrimp that's still on his clothes from cooking earlier, the weather warming up, Yuuko's drunken shouts of "out with the old, in with the new!" and the fact that now he has a frilly yellow apron to wear at work instead of his regular white one.

Spring is the time when the world begins anew, when everything is reborn, starts over, moves ahead.

He can almost hear Yuuko's voice in his head when he figures it out, her laughing at him and saying, "_Maaa, Watanuki… what can desire turn into, I wonder?"_ as she sips wine and generally makes a know-it-all nuisance of herself.

His headache is back suddenly, and he groans when he feels the pounding in his temples match the one in his chest, because Doumeki's _knee _is touching his and in this brand new world he knows what it means, knows that tonight was some sort of lesson from Yuuko about the dangers of letting potential waste, and that now is the time to start fresh, because they have the chance.

Desire, Watanuki knows, can turn into many things.

And, Watanuki supposes, Doumeki being Doumeki, he only ends up giving Watanuki one option to choose from after all is said and done anyway, the cheap bastard.

It just _figures_ that the big cretin would be the one who complicated things first.

He _always _starts it.

Watanuki sighs to himself after he's too tired to think anymore, and gingerly rests his cheek on Doumeki's shoulder. Because he's _tired _and like hell he's going to give Yuuko the same reason to make them come back for another troublesome delivery to that stupid mailbox come this time next year.

"In with the new," he murmurs against the other boy's uniform jacket.

Doumeki simply settles more comfortably next to him and they don't say anything else the entire ride back.

**END**


End file.
